Through the Linking Book
by Julian Ketrarch Spire
Summary: Two people are thrust into an adventure neither of them can comprehend. Can they learn to overcome the differences between a coldhearted genius and a caring nerd? Read and find out! Please review kindly. JKS
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Setting the Stage

To those who saw him, Martin Livan was slightly strange. For a boy of eighteen, he had an uncommon intellect that seemed to allow him to dissect anyone and anything that crossed his path. Unfortunately, this also rendered him coldly impersonal. He relied on facts and facts alone. Some even went so far as to say he had been born without the ability to feel anything at all. If nothing else, Martin Livan was cold.

To those who saw her, Alena Church was an odd girl. She seemed to fit the stereotypical profile of a nerd; the thick glasses, the untidy brown hair, and the slight spattering of freckles across her gently curved nose. She was intelligent, but also a caring person. For the longest time, people always expected great things of her – when they weren't mocking her for her appearance. Above all else, Alena Church was a caring person.

Now, these two were never supposed to meet. Their story was written completely by accident. Alena was a girl who had lived in Germany for the past three years, whereas Martin had been born and raised in Washington State. He was like ice, whereas she was more of the warm desert breeze. He bit into people's flesh with savage intensity, dissecting them and laying them bare. She soothed wounds and took people at face value, all the while studying them in a more gentle way.

It all began with a book.

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I do not own anything mentioned in this story other than plotlines and characters. Any similarities to characters or situations real or fictional are purely coincidental. Please also note that this story covers both Uru: Complete Chronicles and the newer Myst Online: Uru Live ages. It is canonically correct, so this tale can be used as a walkthrough for the game as well. JKS.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Martin shook his head dazedly. He immediately began to take stock of his surroundings. He was lying on a tiny island. He blinked. As odd as it seemed, the island was surrounded by… clouds? That was impossible. That would make this 'island' a 'mountain' of impossible height. He shouldn't be able to breathe at this altitude…

He pushed himself to his knees, grimacing at the sand that stuck to his neat black dress pants. He'd have to wash them when he got home. Interestingly enough, the concept of home meant nothing to him at that moment. More pressing matters swam into his head at that moment.

_How did I get here? _

_Where did I come from? _

_Why am I here? _

_Where is here? _

A myriad of unanswered questions spun around his head, making him dizzy. To alleviate the spinning, he looked around. The island was sparse; shaped more or less like an oval. Toward one end, there was a large peak of some sort, and Martin found himself grateful at seeing a small hut built at the base of it. A pathway led up to a plateau on one side, while another path led to a dead end on the other. At the other end of the island, a solitary pillar jutted from the sandy ground, painfully obvious. A sweet wind ruffled through the few trees and shrubs that were stubbornly eking out an existence on this godforsaken piece of rock. Martin felt his eye twitch.

He stood up, brushing dirt from his favorite Navy Blue Loden coat. (You would too – the thing was worth around one-thousand dollars!) He walked toward the hut, pulling the handle to open the door. He almost jumped as the doors retracted smoothly into the walls at his touch. He eyed them suspiciously before stepping inside.

The inside was just as sparse as the outside. A single wardrobe, elaborately decorated with carvings, rested against one wall. A single bookshelf rested in the wall to the left, and a different type of shelf was embedded in the opposite side. A single brown book was resting there. Martin walked over and picked it up, cursing at finding it filled with indecipherable symbols.

Something tapped against his thigh, and he looked down to see a thin book dangling against his leg. He moved to touch it, but his fingers slipped between the pages and he found himself experiencing a bizarre range of sensory input before realizing he was standing at the same spot he had woken up from.

After a bit of experimentation, he discovered that no matter what happened, he could always return to this desolate little rock. _Just _what he wanted to do.

Martin then turned his analytical mind to the pillar outside. As he moved his fingers over the carving of a hand, the pillar slid down to reveal a book. Oddly enough, it was made of the same type of material as the book at his hip. Curiously, he touched the image of a sunny desert, and found himself experiencing the sensory overload again.

Just before he touched the ground in the desert, Martin heard someone scream something. Then, everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

For the second time that day, Martin shook his head to rid it of the headache that was plaguing him. Something had struck him recently – the lump on his forehead was testament to that. He looked around for the culprit.

Leaning against a faded sign was a girl of about seventeen – probably closer to his own age of eighteen. She was sporting an identical bump on her head, and it didn't take Martin long to figure out what had happened.

"You tried to come here too, then?" he asked, startling her slightly. She nodded, drawing her knees up to her chest. Martin shook his head, willing the fog in it to dissipate.

"Sorry… are you okay?" he asked, biting his tongue to keep one of his trademark sarcastic remarks from flying from his mouth. The girl perked up visibly, standing and walking over to him.

"I'm fine, but what about you?" she asked sweetly, "And who are you?"

Martin accepted her hand and stood up, listening for any sounds that could give away a desert coyote or another arid-climate carnivore.

"Martin Livan," he said curtly. "Hang on…"

He walked around behind the sign the girl had been leaning on, and found a cloth hanging there. His mind instantly processed the symbol – it was identical to the symbol he had touched on the pillar back on that tiny island: a hand with a swirl for the palm that extended outward into the thumb. Acting on a whim, he touched it. Defying all logic, the 'thumb' glowed an icy blue. Martin pressed the cloth several times, but came up with no solution as to how it was possible. The cloth wouldn't come off the sign either, much to his chagrin.

"I'm Alena Church," stated the girl as he tried vainly to tug the cloth from the sign. He finally gave up and shook her hand, irked at the piece of burlap that _dared_ resist him.

His blue eyes scanned the desert, and instantly picked up a silver trailer of some kind. Suspicious and paranoid as he was, Martin instantly noticed that he could access the trailer from the rear by circumnavigating a large caldera that rose like an ugly blemish in the desert.

"Do you have any idea what we're doing here?" asked Alena, "I mean, I just touched some book and…"

Martin nodded, "So did I. Follow me, please."

He hastily walked out of the blazing desert sun into the shadow of the caldera. It was much cooler there. As he walked, Alena began bouncing ideas off him.

"So you also woke up on an island?" she asked, curiously. Martin's icy eyes glared at her for a moment before he answered with a curt "yes".

Alena smiled at him, "I wonder why we didn't see each other…"

He looked at her, "Different islands?" he shrugged. Alena seemed to accept this, pausing to catch her breath.

"Can we rest for a moment?" she pleaded, looking up at him. Martin nodded, crouching down on the balls of his feet. "Don't talk when you walk – it uses unnecessary energy."

She looked hurt for a moment, but understood his logic. When they were on their way again, Alena was quiet.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

As Martin and Alena came around the caldera, Martin was immediately distracted by some interesting remains. Something had died – and it wasn't indigenous to the desert.

"Look," he said, pointing at the skeleton, "This is an aquatic animal."

Alena looked at him as though the heat had gone to his head. Martin gave her an annoyed look and pointed to the bones. "They're more porous, to allow whatever this was to be buoyant."

Alena, however, was focused on another burlap cloth hanging in the jaw of the deceased animal. She walked up and touched it, and noticed that this time, the thumb and about half of the palm glowed their bluish color.

"There are seven," Martin stated. "There's the thumb, the Half-Palm, the Full-Palm… that makes three… and one for each of the four fingers. Just a guess…"

Alena nodded, "Makes sense. So where are the other five?" Martin continued walking, wondering the same thing. They found the third on the back of the silver trailer, but there was nobody home. Martin discovered a page in what looked like a discarded fire pit. It fit perfectly in the book he wore at his hip, but when he went to pinch it in there, he gave a startled yelp as the page ripped free from his fingers and fused with the book. The page glowed green for a moment, revealing a spiral image with a moon and stars. He scowled at himself for being startled and walked up to the silver trailer. The door was ajar, and Martin decided it was an invitation to go inside.

Nothing. Not even a phone. Martin scowled slightly. He was not in a good mood. He couldn't even remember how the hell he got here.

Alena gave a yell from outside, causing Martin to dash out as though the devil were chasing him. Alena had found a deep fissure, and it looked like a small village had been built in it. Martin was fascinated. The houses were carved out of the sides of the fissure, and he was vaguely reminded of the Anasazi Cliff Dwellings that could be found in the southern U.S. Martin noticed there was a unique windmill that seemed to go through the ground next to it. It probably went into one of the 'houses'. Did whoever built this have electricity?

"Let's go…" he muttered, climbing down a ladder that led into the cleft. He was promptly confronted with a decision – two bridges spanned the lower part of the canyon. He quickly chose the one with the least cracks, but discovered it wasn't the safest.

Alena laughed loudly as the bridge snapped, dropping Martin about seven feet into a puddle of water and wet moss. He scowled up at her, his dignity shot to hell. Luckily, another bridge that had snapped due to age provided a ladder for him to climb.

Upon reaching the top, he was greeted by the image of the fourth cloth hanging in the wall of a small chamber.

He touched, it and the thumb, palm, and index finger glowed that same frosty blue. Alena joined him shortly after, and pointed into the only large room. It happened to lie across the fissure, and Martin saw his only route across.

_Oh crap…_

After a rather tricky balancing act across a trio of two-by-fours, he had finally achieved his goal of reaching the other side of the cleft. He dragged himself into what looked like a hobby room or lab. The one thing that caught his eye, however, was a small dirt pyramid with what looked like a radar dish on top and a dial on the front.

"Marty, look!" exclaimed Alena, pointing to an engraving on the wall next to the door.

_Marty? _He walked over and examined the symbols. They were identical to what was on the strange device he had found except in one case. He examined the object again, and touched the out of place symbol. For some reason, after dealing with those cloths, he wasn't really surprised to see the symbol change from one to another. He matched the symbols to the engraving on the wall and pushed the glowing blue button in the center.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Nothing happened. Martin bit back an acidic curse and set about finding the power source. The thing had obviously been dead for a while. It took him all of five minutes to find the power source and figure it out.

"Alena," he said after staring at the contraption in the adjoining room, "Can you pull this lever when I say? Good, wait here."

Martin exited the fissure and walked over to the windmill he had seen earlier. He peered down the shaft that led into the ground. Sure enough, he could see Alena pacing around.

"Go on, pull it," he said, bracing himself against a lever. He heard the sound of machinery releasing, and began to push on it. Unfortunately, he pushed too hard. The windmill started up without any trouble, the lever swinging around and narrowly missing his head. He climbed back down and reunited with Alena in the lab.

"Thanks…" he muttered. His mind was running through the hundreds of possibilities for testing the power, but settled on pressing the button next to a door. The door slid upwards, surprising Martin slightly. He went back into the room with the strange device from earlier and pressed the button there. The door closed.

Smiling to himself, he walked over and pressed the blue button again. This time, the image of a woman flickered into view in the center of the room. She was dressed in clothing that reminded Martin of Native Americans, with a strange tattoo on one side of her tanned face.

"_Sho-rah. Re-koo-an tre-Cleft pre-niv le-glo-en b'rem. Oh yes, not in D'ni, they won't understand,"_ she said, holding her head in her hand.

"_Once again the stream in the Cleft has begun to flow. It was dry for so long. The water is flowing from the desert. The storm is coming."_

Martin stood there aghast. What kind of trickery was this? Technology like three-dimensional imagers shouldn't exist. Let alone inside a primitive structure like this. And what the hell was 'D'ni'?

"_Have you heard of the city," she continued, "The deep city – the ancient Uru – where there was power to write worlds? For thousands of years the city lived – lived beneath the surface – keeper of the secret, keeper of the power, keeper of the ages. Always keeping."_

Martin wanted to hit something. Things like this made no sense. Things that made no sense made Martin Livan angry. He liked things that were easy to understand; things that could be easily sorted into neat, organized categories within his mind.

"_The city grew proud,"_ continued the hologram, _"And then it died."_

The image of the woman danced a lilting waltz to the other side of the room they were in.

"_The water flows where it wills. It seeks its own path, uncontrolled. Except that it flows downward, always downward."_

She sighed, looking directly at Martin and Alena as though she could actually see them. _"D'ni, the city of ages, of other worlds, died. But now it breathes again, it awaits,"_ she shook her head derisively, _"Some will seek that destination. But you should seek the journey. It is as a fine tapestry, complex beyond comprehension, but now torn…"_

With a wave of her spectral hand, another cloth appeared on the wall she was standing nearest to.

"_We will show you remnants, pieces of the tapestry, pieces of the Journey. Find these remnants, these journeys. Seven. Seven in each Age. Seven here in the desert. Consider it a quest… no… a request…"_

Martin looked at Alena, who was standing in complete shock at his side. Her mind had completely shut down when the imager turned on.

"_The water flows downward… and there it pools and collects and finally, once again, it reaches the roots. And the tree begins to grow again."_

The woman looked directly at Martin and Alena again.

"_I am Yeesha. My parents brought me to this place… we will bring you."_

With that cryptic statement, the hologram of 'Yeesha' vanished.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Martin and Alena stood stock still for a moment. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity compressed into a few moments, they both looked at each other.

"What did we just see?" she asked, turning a pair of hazel eyes on Martin. He shook his head in response.

"I have no clue. Let's touch that cloth and get moving. She proved me right – there are seven."

Alena grumbled something and pressed her hand against the cloth. The thumb, palm, and two fingers glowed. Martin looked out the window of the small chamber they were in.

_What is going on…_ he mused _…what is Uru? D'ni? Who is this Yeesha? And how the hell did I get here in the first place?_

He shook his head clear of thoughts, turning back to Alena. "I'll look for one cloth, you find the other. When we've found them, we'll meet back here, okay?"

After a few minutes of searching, Martin located Cloth Number Six on the back of the door he'd closed before activating the imager. Another harrowing walk across the two-by-fours led him to it, and he was delighted to see there was only one finger left to light.

Another few minutes ticked past, and Alena yelled that she had found it. It was attached to a bucket that hung from a complex pulley system. Martin wasted no time in locating the trigger that lowered the bucket, and Alena did the honors of lighting the seventh and final cloth.

"Now what?" she asked as Martin climbed down to meet her on the floor of the crevasse. "We touched all seven, what do we do now?"

Martin pointed toward a tree growing at one end of the cleft. "It has the same design," he said, referring to a door carved into the base of the tree, "Let's try."

He pushed his pale hand against the same shape as what was engraved on the cloths, and took a satisfied step back as the door slid downward into the floor. Alena grinned broadly at him.

"After you, Marty!" she said, pointing to a rickety ladder that dangled precariously inside the tree. Martin rolled his eyes.

"My name, Alena, is Martin. Not Marty. Not Mart. Not anything but Martin." With that, he descended into the tree, leaving Alena on the surface.

It was damp and cool beneath the tree, and a small tunnel led in a gentle curve around a corner and out of sight. Martin was about to follow it, but Alena broke one of the rungs on the ladder and he ended up catching her without really meaning to.

She sat awkwardly in his lap, both of them realizing the position they were in. Alena blushed seven shades of red and leaped from his lap, brushing dirt from her jeans and focusing intently on the ground.

"Don't worry," Martin said as he walked past her, "It's not like anyone could see us."

The tunnel emptied into a small chamber. A blue glow lit the room, the source being a strange misty light that hung above a single pedestal. Another page was resting on the pedestal – identical to the one he had discovered in the fire pit on the surface. Without thinking, Martin inserted it into his book, not startled this time as it leapt from his fingertips to fuse into the book as though it had always been there. All of a sudden, with no explanation at all, Martin felt a familiar sensory feeling. He looked down at his hip book. Without realizing it, he had brushed against Alena and was now transporting them both back to the rock he had started on.

_This is going to be a tedious 'journey'…_ he muttered as the blue hue of the chamber faded to black.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Martin shook his head as he rematerialized on the familiar ground of the island he'd woken up on. Alena was standing at his side, looking around in confusion. "What happened?"

He massaged his forehead, closing his eyes for a moment. "We brushed together and it activated the book. I forgot to close it after experimenting with it." Alena blushed at the implication of how close her hips had been to his, but said nothing.

Martin instantly noticed something was different. The solitary pillar that had once stood like a sentinel on the island was replaced with four new pillars. Off to one side, a primitive bridge stretched to a small island with the spiral-moon-stars design engraved on the ground. Martin spent a few minutes investigating the symbol before giving up. All he could discern was that it was a crescent moon with twelve spokes leading out to the edges as well as some miscellaneous carvings. Alena, in the meantime, had discovered the hut.

"No fair!" she pouted, "Your hut's cleaner than mine…"

He raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"I mean, it looks like someone blew up the zoo in there!" she continued, "It's a mess."

For the second time, Martin massaged his forehead. "Are you tired?" he asked, causing Alena to jump slightly.

"Huh?"

He lowered his fingers from his head and looked at her. "_Are you tired?_" he asked, speaking slowly and clearly to make himself understood. She looked at him strangely.

"Why?"

He took off his coat and laid it on the ground, pointing to it. "Then rest, okay? I'll keep watch."

Before she could argue, he had walked out the door and closed it behind him. He leaned against one of the four pillars and steepled his fingers – a habit that helped him think. Now was one of those times he needed to be able to think clearly.

Unfortunately, no inspiration came to him. He sat there for the better part of three hours before he gave up and began to poke around the island. A small tree grew toward one side of the island, and he was relieved to see it was laden with small red apples. _At least we won't starve…_

He plucked a couple and munched one thoughtfully. It was sweeter than anything he'd ever tasted, but not too sweet. He finished the apple and decided to run a test. He dropped the core off the side of the island and waited to hear if it hit anything.

Five minutes later, Martin gave up listening for the sound. It was obvious that they were either very high up, or were surrounded by a very deep pit. In frustration, he hurled an apple as far as he could off the side of the island, watching with satisfaction as it fell below the cloud line.

He walked around the island, mentally mapping it out. The entire area of the island was probably equal to the ground floor of a one-family house. It was _not_ ideal for any more than two (at a stretch, three) people to inhabit. Not to mention the problem of only one hut.

He heard Alena give a little snort and turn over in his Loden coat. _Just don't drool on it, you hear me?_

Four hours later, Alena woke up feeling remarkably refreshed. The air on the little island was clean and crisp, and she cheerfully handed the coat back to Martin. She smiled happily at him thanked him for the use of the coat.

Martin responded in his usual style: "Hn."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

After 'dining' (if it could be called that) on some apples, Martin and Alena began investigating the four pillars that had replaced the solitary one.

"Someone had to have been here," reasoned Martin, "How else could the pillars have been altered?"

Alena, however, wasn't convinced. "The page you picked up in the cavern right before we came here, though," she argued, "It had a picture of a pillar. Not to mention that strange swirly thing appeared too!"

Martin threw his hands up in the air, his patience thinning. It had been over half an hour, and he was still fighting with Alena to see reason. "It's not like someone just magicked things, Alena!" he all but shouted, "Someone was here, goddamnit!"

Alena crossed her arms defiantly, staring at Martin as he explained fact after fact that disputed the existence of anything remotely resembled magic.

"Martin," she said after a while, causing him to pause for a moment, "Just forget it for now. What are we going to do?"

Martin raised a thin finger to make a statement, but found he had none. His mouth opened and closed for a moment, but he eventually gave up trying to make the words come from his unresponsive throat. He closed his mouth, glaring evilly at Alena.

She pointed at the pillars, smiling slightly that she had shut him up. "Why don't we push the hand icons, hmm?" she suggested. Martin gave her another flame-freezing glare and stalked over to the nearest pillar. He pressed his hand against it, and the icon glowed green for a moment before the pillar opened to reveal a book. He smirked slightly and motioned her over.

"After you, ma'am," he said, indicating the book with his hands. Alena walked forward and pressed her palm against the image of an arid desert garden. Martin watched curiously as her body slowly faded from opaque through translucent before fading from existence altogether. Grimacing at what that sensation felt like, he walked forward and rammed his fingers against the picture.

He tried to identify the various sensory stimuli that were bombarding him as he was transported. What he managed to pin down merely confused him further. It felt as though he was shrinking to miniscule proportions, and the book was growing to engulf him like an angry behemoth. Martin did not like the sensation of being drawn into the fibers of the book.

_I really don't like this…_ he thought as colors accosted his vision. Swirling browns and blues intermittently spattered with a slight amount of red or green. The colors began to accrete together to form visible shapes. A dry cracked ground seemed to unfurl like a scroll beneath him, parts of it rising up to form pinnacles of stone. Fumaroles tore open the ground like angry blisters, and a river of lava seemed to slice through the scene. In the distance, a forest spread endlessly to meet the blue sky at the horizon. A few birds lazily circled high above, unfazed by the desert sun. He briefly wondered if this was similar to the first desert he'd visited but soon realized it wasn't.

The first thing he noticed was that there was a pedestal to his right when his feet touched the ground. A large brass plaque was attached firmly to it, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw English lettering engraved upon it. He ran his fingers over the familiar lettering: EDER GIRA.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Martin, look!"

Martin looked up from the plaque to stare intently at Alena. She was standing on one of the many fumaroles that dotted the area. A gust of hot air pushed out of the sore in the earth, and she was actually lifted higher into the air.

"Stay put," said Martin as he walked over to an adjoining fumarole. A blocking plate was set in place, and he stepped on a foot brake that closed it. The next time the air gusted from the fumarole beneath Alena, she went twice as high as she initially had.

"I'm going to close them all. Let me know what happens," he informed her. He walked up a small slope and began to explore the new area.

_Apart from the heat… _he reasoned _…this area's not so bad…_

He located and closed three more fumaroles, bringing the total sealed vents to four. Alena was standing on the fifth, and there was one precariously placed on an island that jutted high above the river of lava he'd seen earlier.

After checking to make sure he could use the book in case he slipped, Martin climbed down toward a ledge that offered a better jumping vantage. As luck would have it, the first of the seven burlap cloths was hanging there. He eagerly touched it, and the thumb glowed iridescent green.

_I see… the color of the pillar's light indicates the color of the cloth in this area…_ he stroked his chin thoughtfully. _Are these the 'Ages' that Yeesha person mentioned?_

Martin leapt onto the small island and closed the final fumarole. He heard Alena give a cry of elation as she was sent six times higher than she had in the first place. He then heard her give a surprised squeak.

"Martin! There's another cloth thing up here!" she called, waving down to him. He leapt back onto terra firma, vowing not to leave it unless he absolutely had to. He calmly walked back to where he had entered the Age, looking up at Alena as she waved excitedly from a higher ledge.

"Then press it and hop over onto the path," he deadpanned, folding his arms impatiently. "I think I know where to go next."

Martin's eyes widened as he saw Alena press the cloth. The section of ledge she was standing on was cracking – unused to the stress of something as large as a human being dancing around on it.

"Alena! Look out!" he yelled, diving forward as the ledge beneath her gave a shudder. Part of it split away, and Alena let out a startled shriek as she plunged twenty feet straight down toward the unforgiving ground below. Martin landed on the ground beneath her, arms outstretched, and caught her just before she hit the ground. Their combined momentum spun both of them end over end and into a wall.

Martin sat up, rubbing his shoulder. It had connected rather painfully with an unyielding mass of rock – not an experience he wanted to repeat any time soon. He looked over at Alena. Apart from a cut on her cheek, she seemed unharmed. Still, it never hurt to check.

"Are you…" he began, "…alright?" It felt strange to say words like that. He snorted to himself. _I must be getting soft. Since when do I care about anyone other than myself? _Alena, however, threw her thin arms around his neck. She squealed something that sounded vaguely like a thank you, and then planted a kiss on his cheek. Before he could react, she was on her feet and standing four feet away.

"So…" she said with a smile, "…where did you say we were going?"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"When I say now," he said, "Close the fumarole you were jumping from."

She nodded and walked over to the foot brake, standing next to it. Martin walked up the sandy hill he'd ascended earlier, followed a pathway behind the ledge that had just collapsed, and picked his way across a plateau filled with several thorny vines (and an already closed fumarole). He squeezed through a crack and followed a natural rock bridge down to a pair of fumaroles. Carefully, he opened one of them. If the pressure got too great… well…

"Go ahead Alena!" he shouted, "Close the fumarole!"

The gaseous output from the fumarole he'd just opened increased, indicating that hers was shut and his was the only one open. A few moments later, Alena joined him at the only active fumarole.

"Okay, this is going to be tricky," he explained, "I'm going to demonstrate. Just watch, alright?"

He stepped onto the fumarole, and was instantly lifted into the air by the propulsion. He guided himself carefully over a rockslide and landed hard on his rear on the other side.

"Nothing to it!" he called back. _Ow…_

A few moments later, he caught Alena from mid-air as she hurtled over the wall as though shot from a catapult. _Was I really moving that fast?_ She looked up at him, and he noticed the slight blush gracing her features.

"Is it just me," she asked, "Or are you catching me an awful lot?"

Martin hastily set her down, backing away from her and looking at their surroundings to hide the faint tinge of pink that had seeped into his face. _Stop acting like a teenager, Livan!_

They were in some kind of oasis. A pair of waterfalls cascaded down, shielding a pair of caves from the harsh desert sun. The water then ran through a river and plunged down an even steeper waterfall.

Martin's eyes narrowed as he spotted a flash of light from off to one side. A greenish-blue light was hovering above the water just before the large waterfall. He hung his coat on a thorny branch and waded out into the water.

The sparkling light was orbiting above an icon identical to the one that had appeared back on the hub-island. He reached out to touch it, and felt the book at his hip vibrate. He'd check that later. What surprised him was that the light was now gone.

Martin shook his head and climbed from the water. A pair of boomerang-shaped lobsters eyed him with mild interest, but made no move to attack him. Martin returned their glare, but also refused to strike them.

"Alena?" he asked, suddenly realizing she was gone. _Crap! Did she go over the falls?!_

A few moments of searching revealed Alena hiding in one of the caves. She had jumped into the cave and pushed a basket-like object out into the water, making a bridge. Martin still had to jump to cross a larger gap, but it was nothing. If Martin was grateful for anything at that moment, it was his long legs.

"What are you doing?" he asked, startling Alena as she pressed a button atop some kind of wood construction. Apparently it was a light, seeing as a dim fire began to glow inside, steadily becoming brighter until it lit the cave they were in.

The only other area of interest was a thin passageway, but it was far too dark to see. Martin wished he had a flashlight, but turned his attention to something he'd noticed as he walked toward the glowing light.

It was another Age Book.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Martin nervously eyed the book that rested harmlessly on the pedestal in front of him. It depicted a bridge arcing over a green-tinged pool of water. He shuddered at the thought of what probably made it green. _Considering how strange things have been so far…_

He nodded to Alena and pressed his hand against the picture. He felt himself shrinking and being drawn into the fibers of the page. This time it wasn't as overwhelming as the first. _Probably getting used to it…_

He landed in what looked like an elaborate garden. Another plaque to his left proclaimed that he was currently in "EDER KEMO" (whatever that meant).

Alena appeared a few steps behind him, looking around in wonder. Whereas Eder Gira had been sunny and bright, Eder Kemo was on the verge of a thunderstorm. Green was the predominant color beneath a gray sky, and various plants sprouted everywhere Martin and Alena looked.

"Let's get moving," suggested Martin dryly, "We don't want to be caught out in the rain when it hits."

As they walked along the path, Alena spotted a third burlap cloth hanging from a rocky protrusion in the middle of the area they were currently in. She pressed it, illuminating the thumb and the entire palm. A few more minutes of scouring the area revealed a bizarre door and a fourth cloth hidden behind a pagoda and several bamboo-like plants.

Martin eyed the door suspiciously. It was shaped like a teardrop, with a large circular area in the center. The familiar handprint design was evident in the center, and primitive drawings adorned the walls nearby. Martin pushed the hand, and was greeted with a sound similar to primate laughter. Shrugging it off, Martin continued down the pathway. He and Alena ducked through a tunnel surrounded by more drawings and out into a larger garden area.

"Ick…" muttered Alena as she looked at the flora in this second area; her voice filled with distaste. The plants looked like brains mounted upon large spindly stalks, with what looked like tasseled wind-chimes dangling from them. A glowing cloud of insects was dancing between the brain trees, seemingly unaware that they were being watched.

"There's another cloth…" muttered Martin, trying not to show his distaste for the bizarre flora that graced the area. He began to walk forward, but was stopped as a raindrop spattered on the ground in front of him.

"Crap…" he moaned, looking up at the sky as the raindrops began to fall faster. Almost without thinking, he draped his coat around Alena. She looked at him in surprise, blushing slightly again.

"Stop blushing," he said as the rain hammered his face, "It doesn't become you. Nobody sees us."

She nodded beneath the coat, looking at him as the rain pounded away at the white dress shirt he wore beneath it. "Aren't you cold?" she asked, looking at him with her large eyes. Martin shook his head.

"I come from Washington," he replied coolly, "This is common there."

After a few minutes, the rain intensified and was intermixed with wind. Alena turned her side to the wind, blocking the rain from entering the open front of the coat. Martin held an arm up to his eyes, blocking the rain from getting in them. After another few minutes, the rain slackened off and quit altogether.

Alena offered the coat back to Martin, but he shook his head. "Keep it for now. I'm already wet, aren't I?"

He walked over and pressed the fifth cloth. He turned and looked at her, his ice-chip eyes watching her intently. "Two more."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Martin," whispered Alena quickly, and he turned around to see something that almost made him smile. Almost.

Alena was being accosted by the swarm of fireflies they had seen earlier. Apparently the little bugs didn't like water, because they had fled to _inside_ the brain-trees when the rain began. Alena ran around for a few minutes, jumping and running to rid herself of the bugs.

"Leave them," Martin said after a while, "I have an idea."

Alena looked at him strangely. "Please, do tell."

He leaned his soaked back against one of the various pillars in the area. "What if we took them back to the desert area; Eder Gira, and used them to light that darkened pathway?"

Alena lit up (no pun intended) at the idea. She nodded, but looked nervously at the insects nonetheless. "They aren't poisonous, are they?"

Martin shook his head, "Fireflies don't contain poison," he said. _At least, NORMAL fireflies don't…_

He walked with her down the pathway, discovering the sixth cloth in a clearing full of bizarre puffing plants that continually sprayed sweet-smelling pollen into the air. After a bit of tricky maneuvering, he managed to climb up onto a ledge where he saw a flash of white. Sure enough, a page similar to the ones he found in the desert was resting on the ground. It was decorated with swirls and other designs. He quickly squirreled it in his book.

The pair of them hid in another tunnel to wait out another rainstorm, deciding it was best to keep the bugs dry so as to prevent them from flying off. Martin shook his wet hair from side to side, clearing most of the water from it. "Let's go."

As the rain subsided, Martin and Alena quickly crossed the greenish pool they had seen from the book and entered a cavern directly beneath where they had entered the Age. A book rested on a shelf with an image of Eder Gira's Waterfall Oasis. Alena touched the book, shortly followed by Martin.

After balancing across the first basket-bridge, Martin helped Alena jump across the small gap that wasn't bridged. They walked carefully through the darkened tunnel, and Martin suddenly realized that Alena was clinging firmly to his left arm.

"Alena…" he sighed, "…are you afraid of the dark?"

She said nothing, and Martin got the distinct impression that she was nauseous and petrified. The dim light of the fireflies revealed another room, and it had one of the torch-objects in the middle. Alena sighed in relief as Martin activated it, bathing the room in light.

"I need you to do something," Martin said quickly, "Can you go back to the Garden Area and get some more bugs?" She nodded and ran out of the cave, scaring the bugs enough to fly away. They hovered near the ceiling of the small chamber, buzzing dully.

Martin flipped a lever that raised a portcullis-style door. After feeling his way down a dimly lit passageway, he came out at the top of the waterfalls. He noticed a second and third cave, and was delighted to find a pair of baskets almost identical to the one down below.

After throwing them off the waterfall, he walked back down and maneuvered them to form a bridge to prevent Alena from having to jump. As soon as he finished, he heard a voice from nearby.

"Well, I suppose it ain't the Golden Gate Bridge, but it'll do."

He looked up at Alena, still clad in his soaking wet Loden coat, and accompanied by an ensemble of glowing insects. For some reason, a small smile flitted across his features.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Alena navigated the bridge with few problems, but Martin remained in the water to catch her if she fell. They climbed back through the illuminated tunnel and up onto a thin ledge. Martin helped Alena across a small gap where a third waterfall (miniscule in comparison to the others) trickled steadily through.

They walked into a dark cave, and Martin (for reasons he himself did not understand) gave Alena's hand a reassuring squeeze. He mentally kicked himself later. That was _not_ something Martin Livan usually did. The seventh and final cloth hung in the cave, as well as one of the torches. He quickly lit it in case they ever had to come back. After dispersing the bugs, they walked back down to ground level.

"Martin," asked Alena after poking around a seat-shaped rock, "What's this?"

Martin bit his tongue as he examined the piece of rock carefully placed there. It was wrapped with the same material as the cloths they'd been touching, but it showed a picture. It looked like a rooftop of sorts. Martin, on a whim, touched the cloth and felt himself being transported.

Atop the little roof there was little to see. Journals littered the countertops, but they were bound shut, and Martin growled in frustration. Alena appeared a few moments later. They discovered one sad little fact about the rooftop, however, and that was that there was no way down. After cursing everything in the immediate vicinity, Martin offered the book at his hip to Alena. She gratefully touched it and faded from his sight. He quickly followed suit.

Back on the island, Martin paced back and forth. He wanted answers and he wanted them _now_ goddamnit! The hut had acquired a new rug on the floor, and he suspected there was a connection between that page he'd picked up in the Garden Age of Eder Kemo and the new decoration.

"Okay," he said at length, "Here's what we know so far."

Alena nodded, showing she was willing to listen. Martin pointed at the ground.

"One: We're on a godforsaken piece of rock."

Alena giggled, but nodded nonetheless.

"Two: By touching a picture in a book (or on a rock) we can go to new places called 'Ages'."

Alena thought for a moment, but nodded in agreement after a moment.

"Three," he continued, "We're searching for seven cloths in each of these Ages for a reason known only to this Yeesha person."

Again, Alena nodded, "And we know they have interesting effects," she added, "Like opening that door in the desert."

Martin froze in mid-pace. _Door?_ He looked at her. "The door…" he muttered a few things, steepling his fingers and tapping the tips of his index fingers together. "There was another door in the Garden Age, wasn't there?"

Alena nodded, her mind replaying the sound of simian laughter that had echoed from beyond that door. It reminded her eerily of something out of H.G. Well's _"The Time Machine"_ for some reason.

"Why don't we go try it?" she offered. Martin nodded in agreement. He had seen several new books added to their library bookshelf inside the hut, so he began poking and prodding them until one slid out of the shelf and revealed itself as the book that led to Eder Kemo. Without hesitation, the two touched the panel and faded from the island in the sky.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Martin wasted no time in running up to the door and slamming his palm against it. He wasn't really expecting anything to happen, and took a step backward as the door groaned and opened.

"Er…" he muttered, staring at the opening beyond. "Who wants to go first?"

Alena pushed him forward, and he grudgingly accepted the role. He walked inside and froze. Something wasn't right. Alena had walked up behind him, and let out a squeak as the door closed behind them, leaving them in inky blackness.

A trilling sound echoed through the space, and Martin's eyes hurt from trying to pin down the source. It sounded like whatever had made it was at least a head taller than him; and he was five-four. He balled his hands into fists and began to walk; Alena clinging tightly to his arm.

Another sound echoed through the chamber, and it sounded closer. Whatever was making that sound was practically on top of them. In the deep darkness, Martin thought he saw a quadrupedal shape moving around just beyond his line of sight. It seemed almost apelike in movements, but everything else about it was shrouded in mystery.

With a growl, he walked forward to get closer, but instantly found himself experiencing the sensory melting experience that occurred every time he touched one of those damn books.

Rather than appearing back at their hub/island, however, he appeared in a bluish cave, the light seeming to come from everywhere at once. A familiar voice echoed through the chamber.

"_Your journey has begun,"_ said the familiar voice of Yeesha, _"You can't imagine how these small things affect the future, but someday you will. You will return."_

Alena was looking everywhere for the source of the voice, but couldn't find it. Martin had resigned himself to this fact as soon as the voice had begun speaking.

"_Many paths have brought me to this place,"_ continued Yeesha from wherever she was, _"The path of my great-grandmother; bringer of destruction. The path of my mother; writer of dreams. And of my father – my dear father – the caretaker of burdens."_

Martin folded his arms impatiently, leaning against the smooth stone wall of the chamber. Alena followed suit shortly after.

"_And I knew that at the end of such great paths must lay a great purpose. I returned to the Cleft to find it."_

Martin yawned inwardly. Yeesha talked too much for his liking. Still, perhaps a question or two would be answered. Therefore, he focused on her droning voice.

_The Cleft, the fissure in the desert, the wound in the earth, the path to things beneath the surface – it was there I sought to find my purpose. It was from there I came to know the dead underground city of D'ni. _

Martin popped his knuckles, and Alena looked up at the sudden sound. Seeing it was only her companion, she began looking around the chamber again.

"_These D'ni people, who are now gone, came thousands of years ago to the shelter of the cavern to return to leastness. They found solace in their smallness in the dark, and so did I."_

Martin sniffed to himself. "Is 'leastness' even a word?" he asked Alena. She shrugged, but held a finger to her lips. He caught the hint and closed his mouth.

"_But light is powerful in the darkness,"_ continued Yeesha. Martin was getting ready to nod off at this point.

"_Did you see the hidden caves and the cages? It is where the proud would keep the Least. The Least were only animals after all – animals that could link. They could be put to work or play, they could ease the burden of the proud, and fill their free time with entertainment. Quietly, as D'ni slept, their lives were taken, because the proud make the rules."_

Martin was on full alert. Hidden caves and cages? That smacked of slavery to him. What were these Least? Animals?

"_This wasn't the first time such a blasphemy was part of D'ni. The D'ni histories whisper of it. Like Va'tuhg the Ager; or King Asemlef. And even in this Age, it may not be the last."_

Martin was confused Va'tuhg? King Asemlef? This was getting more confusing by the second. Just what WERE the D'ni?

"_And now to these pillars," _continued Yeesha. Martin focused on the four totem-like structures in the chamber. _"These four pillars around you are the very being of the Bahro. You must take them. They will bring a great treasure to Relto, you Age, the island in the clouds. Relto will be their keeper for only a short time."_

With that, Yeesha's voice faded away into nothingness. It left Martin with more questions than answers as he stared into the bluish gloom of the tiny cave.


End file.
